O'Neal was champion of salmon, Hood Canal

Dan O’Neal valued truth, facts and science, especially when it came to his beloved Hood Canal.

The former board member of the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group died Oct. 10, surrounded by family while he gazed out at the Olympic Mountains and Hood Canal. He was 81.

While a celebration of his life drew many people to the Seattle Tennis Club on Nov. 4, O’Neal always said he’d like a service at the Salmon Center in Belfair, said his wife, Diane O’Neal.

The Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group will host a service from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 2, at the Salmon Center, so that locals can pay their respects and share stories of the man known as a “silent giant,” said Mendy Harlow, the nonprofit’s executive director.

“He was really focused on the facts, the science and the truth, which was something I appreciated in him as an individual, but also as a board member,” Harlow said. “He was someone who looked at the reality and not at dreams. He didn’t talk often, but when he did, he spoke well.”

For instance, Harlow recalled that when she became executive director in 2012, many board members still focused on plans to develop the Salmon Center into a large campus for environmental education.

Dan O’Neal opposed such ideas, Harlow shared.

“It was supposed to be this huge development and he said, ‘Come on, is that realistic? Do we really want to develop this serene, beautiful place?’” she said. “The reason people want to be here is the serenity. That was something I really appreciated because I feel the same way.”

Arthur Daniel O’Neal was born May 15, 1936, in Bremerton to Arthur Sr., and Louise Nordahl O’Neal, and he grew up with fond memories of playing in Hood Canal, Diane O’Neal said.

After graduating from Bremerton High School, Dan O’Neal attended Whitman College and earned a degree in mathematics.

In 1959, he joined the U.S. Navy “to see the world and in part to avoid the draft,” Diane O’Neal said, and on New Year’s Eve of 1960, he met the woman that would change his life.

“It was on a blind date and he was in the Navy,” Diane O’Neal recalled. “A friend of mine asked, ‘Do you want to go on a blind date on New Year’s Eve in Seattle?’ I said, ‘No.’”

Eight months later, they married in Seattle and would go on to have four children.

While Diane O’Neal pursued a career in nursing, Dan O’Neal served in Vietnam and then later attended law school at the University of Washington.

His law degree became useful when he accepted what was supposed to be a one-year job in Washington, D.C., working under Sen. Warren Magnuson. The O’Neals stayed in the other Washington for 16 years.

“Sen. Magnuson was sprucing up his staff with young people,” Diane O’Neal said. “Dan had a fascination with government and how it works. We were both interested in government. Kennedy had become president and it was a refreshing time in politics.”

While working under Sen. Magnuson, O’Neal served as transportation counsel to the United States Senate Commerce Committee.

In 1973, President Richard Nixon appointed O’Neal a commissioner of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and later President Jimmy Carter appointed him as chair. O’Neal served on the commission until 1980.

“This was when government worked,” Diane O’Neal recalled. “People cooperated, and compromise was part of the deal. It was such an exciting time because of that. You could see how it would all work out because everybody had to give a little to get a little.”

The family returned home to Seattle, where Dan O’Neal served as a law partner at Garvey, Schubert and Barer and later worked as a consultant for 36 years for the Greenbrier Companies, a railroad transportation corporation based in Lake Oswego, Oregon.

O’Neal often used his political and legal background to inform politicians about issues related to transportation.

“You hear about the evilness of lobbyists, and while it’s true that you shouldn’t have more access if you have more money, how else do you educate congressmen about the issues?” Diane O’Neal said. “He worked for Greenbrier full-time until 2002.”

The couple had purchased a home on Hood Canal in 1987 but moved to Belfair full-time in 2002, after they both had retired.

Dan O’Neal had always been civically minded, serving key roles with the Railway Supply Institute, Washington State Freight Mobility Strategic Investment Board and the Washington State Transportation Commission, but later in life he turned those efforts to the environment.

“His knowledge of transportation and the impact that has on the water and the salmon motivated him,” Diane O’Neal said. “He knew how complex the issues were.”

Dan O’Neal was appointed to the Puget Sound Partnership and as soon as he moved to Belfair, he volunteered as a boat operator for the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group’s Hood Canal Dissolved Oxygen Project.

“When I started as an AmeriCorps member for the Salmon Center, he was the first boat operator I worked with,” Harlow remembered. “A staff member and a volunteer would go with him to collect water samples … His relationship and love of water and the outdoors was evident.”

O’Neal had been introduced to the Salmon Center through Congressman Norm Dicks, who had been instrumental in obtaining funding for the nonprofit’s dissolved oxygen program, and founder Al Adams, who spoke often of his dream for a salmon center on Hood Canal, Diane O’Neal said.

“Dan realized that salmon are a keystone species,” Harlow added. “If we don’t have healthy salmon, we don’t have a healthy Puget Sound. From the small birds to the orca whales, so many species rely on salmon to thrive.”

O’Neal served on the Salmon Center’s board from 2003 until his death.

Dan O’Neal died from mesothelioma, cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. Most U.S. Navy vessels built prior to 1980 were built with asbestos, according to the Mesothelioma Center.

O’Neal is survived by his wife, four children and eight grandchildren.